Forex news for Asia trading Friday 13 February 2015
Australia/New Zealand:
- RBA governor Stevens testimony: Further fall in AUD likely to occur
- More from RBA governor Stevens: AUD is more or less doing what we expect it to do
- RBA's Kent weighing in now: Animal spirits are lacking in business
- Comments on RBA Stevens' testimony this morning from CBA
- Still more from RBA governor Stevens: Businesses have a significant lack of confidence
- New Zealand food price index for January: +1.3% (prior +0.3%)
- Head of Australian Bureau of Statistics says not to take the employment data too seriously
Europe/Greece;
- Greek PM Alexis Tsipras comments on EU summit in Brussels
- More from Constancio - Says ECB not fulfilling its mandate
- Comments from Dijsselbloen, Juncker on Greece
- Comments from European Central Bank's Constancio
More:
- New York Fed: Don't know 100% if oil price fall explains why inflation falling in US
- China Securities Journal says rate cut unlikely in near future and more detail here
- Japan Buying Foreign Bonds, Y B (plus, the rest of this data)
- People's Bank of China (PBOC) sets yuan reference rate at 6.1288
- Japan's daunting task to hit budget surplus target
- Are G20 Finance ministers are turning a blind eye to "currency wars"?
- Heavy snowfall to take a toll on Q1 US GDP
- China - Conference Board leading economic index for January
Friday the 13th in Asia ... and the markets were relatively subdued.
Nevertheless there was movement, best summarised as broad US dollar weakness, albeit limited in scope.
The CHF seemed to lead the way, with a persistent drift lower throughout the Tokyo morning and into early afternoon (indeed, its on its lows for the session as I write) ... EUR/CHF was weaker along with it.
USD/JPY got to around 119.10 in the very early going, losing a little ground and settling sideways before being shunted lower towards 118.40; the nature of the move suggested some urgent selling (which in turn suggest perhaps stop-loss activity), and it came without an obvious catalyst.
EUR and GBP both moved higher against the USD also, and those moves continue as I write. Late US/early Sydney comments on Greece out of Europe had little euro impact at all.
AUD, NZD ... both bid as well. The AUD may have got a bit more of leg up from Glenn Stevens who, while certainly not talking the Australian economy and interest rates up, was notably light on the jawboning for the currency, with a few remarks but nothing new or of much interest.
Completing the picture of a weaker USD, oil and gold both gained during the session (as of writing).
